Large technical installations, such as steam and gas turbine installations, chemical installations, steelworks, rolling mills, are complex technical systems, which have a plurality of (e.g. several hundred) components, for example sensors, actuators, drives, etc., each of which may in some instances acquire and supply a number of measurement values per second for further processing and transmission.
To monitor and control components, such as turbines, evaporators, generators, sensors, drives, actuators, etc. of the technical installation, the data obtained from the components is processed, analyzed and interpreted. It is thus possible to identify deviations from a predetermined normal status as early as possible and where necessary prevent damage to and/or failure of the component, for example the turbine.
The quantity of data/measurement signals to be evaluated and the complexity of possible dependencies between the data/measurement signals here is generally much too great for an operator to be able to perform an effective analysis of the data/measurement signals.
The technical installation here comprises an automation system for controlling and monitoring the installation, said automation system generally being divided into an operating and observation level, an automation/process level and a field level, which are connected to one another by way of a communication unit, in particular one or more data bus systems.
The data, such as measurement signals, status signals of individual components, such as sensors, actuators, drives, turbines, automation units, etc., is generally brought together in log files, which describe one or more events that have occurred in one or more components and/or component groups, and transmitted to relevant components of the technical installation.
In practice automatic control and/or monitoring give(s) rise to the problem of an increasing number of generated log files when an event occurs in the technical installation, for example when there is a malfunction. Typical causes here are for example defective sensors and/or defective installation parts, which supply additional measurement values and therefore additional log files. This makes it difficult for operators to have an overview and be able to acquire the generated log files. It is also difficult for operators to assess the event that has occurred correctly.